As computing has become more mobile, client devices have shrunk in size, leaving little “real estate” on which to display text, images, and videos. Such client devices tend to be an awkward fit for the WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointer) style of human-computer interaction.
During the same period of time, services based on social graphs and services based on interest graphs have grown in popularity. An example of the former is Facebook. An example of the latter is Twitter.
Both types of services broadcast user-generated content to other users using a graphical user interface (GUI) control called a newsfeed or stream, which is scrollable with a finger on a mobile device with a touch screen, such as a smartphone or tablet.
Other types of services present content to users using newsfeeds or streams. Yahoo! News is a content-aggregation service with social features and it presents content, much of which is not user-generated, to users using a newsfeed or stream.
Consequently, functionality for presenting newsfeeds or streams is an area of ongoing research and study.